Biography of Giorgio Bassani

In rhyme and without

4 March 1916 13 April 2000 Giorgio Bassani was born in Bologna on 4 March of 1916 to a family of Jewish bourgeoisie, but spent his childhood and youth in Ferrara, a city destined to become the beating heart of his poetic world, where she graduated in literature in 1939. During the war years actively participates in Endurance knowing even the experience of prison; in 1943 he moved to Rome, where he lived for the rest of his life, while maintaining strong ties with the city of origin. It is only after the 1945 dedicated to literary activity on an ongoing basis, working both as a writer (poetry, fiction and nonfiction) and as editorial: operator is important to remember that the Publisher Feltrinelli Bassani was to support the publication of the novel "Il gattopardo", marked by the same vision of history that meets even the lyrically disillusioned works by the author of "Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini". Giorgio Bassani also works in the world of television, arriving to fill the role of Vice President of Rai; taught in schools and has also been a Professor of theater history at the Academy of dramatic art in Rome. Actively participates in the Roman cultural life working on various magazines, including "Botteghe Oscure", review of international literature out between 1948 and 1960. It should also be mentioned its long and continuing commitment as President of "Our Italy," created in defense of the artistic and natural heritage of the country. After some collections of poems (all his poems are collected in one volume in 1982, under the title "rhyme and without") and publication in one volume of "Cinque storie ferraresi" in 1956 (some however were already appeared individually in different editions), Babu achieves great success with the already introduced "Il giardino dei Finzi Contini" (1962) : in 1970 the novel will also get an illustrious film adaptation by Vittorio De Sica, but Babu will always stand apart. The later works of the writer, developed all around the large geographic and sentimental theme of Ferrara are "behind the door" (1964), "the Heron" (1968) and "the smell of hay" (1973), meeting in 1974 in one volume with the novelette "Gli occhiali d'Oro" (1958), with the significant title "the novel of Ferrara". After a long period of illness, also marked by painful contrasts within his family, Giorgio Bassani goes off in Rome on 13 April 2000.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.